State Briefs 8/28/08

GALESBURG – Two men are in jail after an officer making routine traffic stop Wednesday night found a mobile methamphetamine lab in their car.

According to reports, the Galesburg Police Department officer saw a car traveling on Academy Street without headlights at about 9:25 p.m. The officer stopped the car on Main Street near Cedar Street.

The officer found the rear passenger window broken, the steering column stripped out and the passenger, Kent D. Pederson, 36, without a seat belt.

The driver, Ronald V. Johnson Jr., 30, said the car belonged to his brother, who was in jail, and the car was in the current condition when it was bought.

In the back seat, police found a small silver cooking bowl with a red clay-like material in it. A black bag containing a grinder with pills that appeared to be Sudafed was in the trunk.

Also in the trunk, police found two boxes of Sudafed, several lithium batteries, small plastic bags, a protective suit, several hoses and connectors used for stealing anhydrous ammonia and other meth-making materials.

Galesburg Register-Mail

Man fleeing from police hits squad cars

TAYLORVILLE – A 44-year-old Taylorville man was arrested Sunday after crashing into two police cars while trying to flee.

Brian Moses was taken into custody after crashing into two Taylorville police patrol cars while trying to flee from officers about 12:45 p.m., according to police.

Authorities initially were called to a house where Moses was allegedly battering someone inside. When officers arrived, Moses tried to leave in his vehicle, but collided with a police patrol car.

The squad car sustained damage to its front end. As Moses continued to drive away from the house, his vehicle struck another police car.

State Journal-Register

Cost may derail Jacksonville-Springfield shuttle

JACKSONVILLE — It would cost about $150 a month, per passenger to run a once-daily, shuttle bus service between Springfield and Jacksonville, a cost that may spell the end of the proposal, the director of the West Central Mass Transit District said Thursday.

“I don’t think that it’s dead, but it’s not as alive as it was,” said Jean Jumper. The district runs an “on-demand” shuttle service in a three-county area west of Springfield, including Morgan, Scott and Brown.

Jumper said about 60 people who live in Jacksonville and commute to jobs in Springfield — a 75-mile roundtrip — responded to an initial call for interest. But when follow-up letters went out with the estimated cost, only nine came back.

She said the estimate was based on a 25 or 26-passenger shuttle running once a day, including the cost of diesel fuel, maintenance, a driver and a dispatcher. She added that it also was difficult to find departure and return times that matched worker hours in Springfield.

Jumper said the Jacksonville district plans to hold a public hearing in the next 30 days before giving up on the idea.

“We’ll call a public meeting and see who shows up, and if at that point there’s no interest, it’ll be dead,” said Jumper.

State Journal-Register

Proctor Hospital names new CEO

PEORIA — Proctor Hospital has named Paul E. Macek, a former hospital president and current adjunct professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, as its new president and CEO.

Macek is slated to begin work at the Central Peoria hospital Sept. 24 and will replace current president and CEO, Norman LaConte, who announced in late February he was retiring after 43 years of employment with the institution.

Before accepting his position at Proctor, Macek, of Glen Carbon, Ill., served as the president of Christian Hospitals near St. Louis and as an instructor in SIU’s Department of Public Administration and Policy Analysis.